PM: Saint Lucia ‘threatened’ on deportee issue

Prime Minister, Allen Chastanet, has told reporters here that this country was threatened on the issue of accepting deportees from the United States.

He said Saint Lucia was told that if it did not accept the deportees, travel for locals would be ‘pulled”

Chastanet said he has indicated to the United States that he is unhappy but will honour the current system.

However the PM said he will continue to lobby for an international treaty to deal with the situation.

He explained that he was concerned that someone who left this country at two years old, spent their childhood and adult life overseas, committed a crime and is repatriated.

The Prime Minister asserted that the flaw in the process is that the United States is using the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) legislation governing air travel to send people back.

“In that agreement, if somebody leaves here and is detained or for some reason denied entry, it is required that we accept that person back,” the former Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister said.

He said he understands that provision within a particular lime frame but was not sure that the architects of the ICAO agreement had in mind that someone could spend up to fifty years in a country and then be repatriated.

“I think this is an issue that must be brought up at the UN level and I think that we should write a treaty that specifically deals with deportees and how we are going to handle it,” the Prime Minister told reporters.

Chastanet observed that some countries like India refuse to accept the deportees.

“Countries that seem to have the backbone and the ability to say ‘no’ get away with it. Unfortunately, a smaller state like ours has to depend on an national treaty that we can go by because certainly we do not have the ability to push back,” he told reporters.

27 Comments

friend

Hero

This is a Classic Example of an Egregious and Aberrant Interpretation of Solidly Established ICAO Legislations… Sadly, History is Starting to Repeat Itself… Thus, it is Irresponsible, Unreasonable and Unfair for one to Equate 60 seconds, 60 Minutes and 60 Hours and/or 60 Days, 60 Months and 60 Years under Grueling Circumstances… Therefore, these various Time Frames represent different experiments spanning various experiences, various personal developmental phases, and various generational phases… Some American Characteristics become Normal and Permanent after 60 Months, much less after 60 Years… If you are not American after 10 Years… Then we Need a New-Articulation and Redefinition of what it takes to become an American… I thus remain Hopeful that Extraordinary Common Sense will Prevail… God Bless Us All…!!!

Anon

The PM needs to realise that he cannot change the US’ laws overnight. He has to remember how he lied on the American government within his first few days in office when he grossly exaggerated the number of deportees which were returned to Saint Lucia. Hope he knows what he’s talking about when he mentions Treaty. Btw, what ‘s about the no visas to the US when Saint Lucia’s economy would be booming? AA, but we’re BROKE!

Tally

Anonymous

Exactly, so much Obama was dubbed the “Reporter in chief”!! He deported over 2m people! And let’s not be surprised about this new policy, Prez Trump was quite clear during his campaign! And its not going to end there, even those illegal immigrants who have not committed crime will be deported forth with!! Many were of the opinion that Trump was just being bombastic, but no sir!!

The Caribbean must now brace themselves for the new work order!! Things are going to change and what we are to do is to find the silver lining asap! We can’t get caught with our pants down as usual! Embrace the challenges with innovative and smart policies, and Lear once and for all to start looking inward and find ways to help ourselves!! Empowerment and self sustenance through strategic international partnerships will have to be our best and only option. Let’s start NOW!!

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the man himself

St.lucia is over than for there is no more hope st.lucia is finished.both political parties are not capable of running the country the people get sell out all the time.the people have tried and gave up the young is going into drugs, prostitution gambling,stealing and suicide they have no options.money in st.lucia are circulated among only a few individuals and the rest of the country has to fend for themselves.THE TRUTH IS THE TRUTH

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the man himself

Look how simple everything is right before our eyes.no minimum wage which means u could get paid any amount for your labour and tax keep increasing .now look at the custom duties how much we local people have pay to clear goods.the local fish and ground provisions have no value people have turn away from farming.look we have no medical plan people have to turn to donations when in a durastic medical condition.plus business places keep on closing down every year.we keep importing everything and exporting nothing.our food stay on trees and spoil no factories to make product that we could export.SO HOW IN THE HELL SLP OR UMP EXPECT THE COUNTRY TO GO FORWARD.

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the man himself

And worst of all when someone goes to any government places to actually try to do something u get so much discrimination,discrediting doubts where as in other countries so much is accessable to anyone.so i mean those guys really need to sit and watch the whole situation cause in st.lucia everybody is quiet fear if they say something that the government will do something to them.i just believe those guys really need to analyze a situation rather than sugar coat everything the goes wrong i mean some people live horribly and they dont take notice of it.it like its ok since noone say anything.THE NEED TO COME UP WITH A REAL SOLUTION FOR THE COUNTRYS PROBLEMS AND STOP MEETINGS AND PROMISES

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the man himself

On what could the country go forward tourism??by what percentage tourism is growing the economy.they cant say farming since we still importing cabbage,meat eggs,four sugar and so on.so on what resources is the country going forward.

Anonymous

Personally, I always believed even before the Trump phenomenon that Caribbean leaders have let their people down, and continue to do so by not effecting policies that promote our best capabilities and advantages. The Region has always been reactive rather than proactive! What’s especially troubling is the prominence that politics take over economics!! We need as a country to demand constitutional change in our matters of governance to ensure that only quality people present themselves for political office in terms of appropiate and relevant academic and proven achievements! Little wonder we feel that our leaders have no idea what they’re doing, and we are surprised when administratios continue to fail us! We need to consistently remind our politicians that they are elected to serve US and not the other way round, and so we.must hold them accountable for all their actions! Until then we will continue to be exposed and made vulnerable to external forces and left always on the back foot.

For me Trump offers a new opportunity for the region to begin to empower itself and do things differently, because looking ahead, we are all we have! We can do it!

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Brani

Simple solution. Get a QC ( immigration specialist) in US Immigration Law to advise the Government on how to deal with this problem of handling deportion issues. Because there are measures and protocols in place to protect receiving countries from accepting alleged deportees. ok. The system is onesided and unfair therefore should be addressed tactically on a legal footing.

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Anonymous

All Caribbean nations must unite and work together and sort your problems out as a people. The world will respect you more as a people when you work together. It is true you are small nations but if you unite together how will become a mighty power for good. You will be able to defend yourselves and work for the good of your people. That’s what every nations are doing now standing with their people. People who left their countries when they we babies only have the culture in the country they grow up in. If they commit crimes it is due to the culture they grow up in and has nothing to do with the country where they were born. In reality they belong to the country where they obtain their culture. These people should not be sent back to the land of their birth because of crimes they committed in the land they grow up in. They are citizens of that land because of all the years they have lived in that land. If they decide to deport all black people who are in America for over fifty years they will have to deport all other nations who come from the western world and who leave in America. Because as far as l can see is mostly black people are being sent back to their lands. This is very wrong.